Be Still
by P e e c h Candy
Summary: With their future now uncertain, Usagi orders her guardians to leave her to go pursue their passions. Left alone, she struggles to be okay on her own without their constant companionship. When put in danger, there's no one left to save her. Dark. A little violent. UsagixSeiya.


Be Still

 _A/N: It's been a while again. Sorry, folks. Life's been crazy and trying to take me down with it. But getting lots of ideas for stories, just haven't had the time/patience/determination to sit down and actually write one. But this one just hasn't left me be, so. Here we go! It's a little dark. Not so much the warm and fuzzy I go for, but it's been tough lately. So. This is what comes out._

 _UsagixSeiya shipping. Anyone who doesn't like my ship can kindly jump overboard. Comments and reviews always welcome._

 _Lyrics used from The Fray's "Be Still."_

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Not for her. A princess. Constantly surrounded by friends. Friends who loved her and protected her with everything they had. She had lost count of how many times her guardians had made sacrifices for her, lost their lives for her, put their dreams aside for her.

Usagi always knew this, that unhappy knowledge lurking in the back of her mind that would sneak up on her some days. She knew her friends had given up a lot. And would continue to give up a lot. They never complained, but sometimes she could see a glimmer of hope at an exciting plan for the future quickly extinguished by the ever present sense of duty they each had.

Duty to protect her.

To say she was ruining their lives was a little unfair and probably a pretty big exaggeration, but she loved her friends dearly. Wanted them to chase their dreams and explore every open door facing them. They couldn't, wouldn't, do that on their own.

So Usagi had made them.

It hadn't been a pretty conversation. Well, perhaps argument would really be the more accurate term there. Lots of yelling and refusing. But Usagi had acted with the true grace and authority of a princess. Their princess.

It would be best for everyone. Let them all explore and live as they chose. She didn't want them to go into the future with regrets of not having truly lived. A guardian only half-heartedly doing her job wouldn't be helping anyone in the end. Grudgingly, they'd accepted that.

A lot had changed and they were all anxious. Before their futures had been certain. Etched in stone, or crystal really, and a sure fact. But the splitting up of Usagi and Mamoru had thrown everything off kilter. For the first time in a long while, the future was murky with uncertainty. They didn't know what would happen anymore or when. All they knew was that they did have a future and it was up to them to make it a bright one.

Usagi thought the best way to do that was to make sure everyone was really, truly happy.

So she'd sent them off. To explore passions and interests. Travel the world. Do the things they had always wished they could but just never been able to do.

Ami was studying medicine in America. Mako-chan was taking the baking world by storm in France. Michiru was touring the world, with Haruka never too far away. Each of them was exploring a passion they'd never had the chance to pursue when they were obligated by duty to stay near their princess. They were free to live normal lives for once.

And of course Usagi had made sure to sell it to her advantage too. She'd argued she could never learn to forage for herself and stand on her own if she was always being fussed over by her friends. If she wanted to be a good, strong queen she'd argued, they needed to let her sort out her path on her own.

Reluctantly, they'd agreed. It was pretty hard to ignore the fact that they coddled and doted on her at times.

Truth be told, Usagi really did feel weak. Too dependent on the others. This distance would be good – for all of them.

At least, that's what she had told herself. Had told them. Put on a brave, smiling face while waving as they boarded their planes to their great adventures. Meanwhile, Usagi left and simply returned to her suddenly hollow-feeling apartment.

Going through the motions was how she passed the days. Lunch with Naru. Dinner with her family. Spending time taking classes on cooking, calligraphy, politics. She still wasn't the best student, but she really was trying to better herself. The glimpse she'd had of her future self was intimidating, and it was often the case Usagi doubted she'd ever live up to her future self.

But now as the darkness began to creep around the edges of her vision, she wondered if she'd even get the chance.

 _When darkness comes upon you  
And covers you with fear and shame  
Be still and know that I'm with you  
And I will say your name_

It had been an ordinary day. Meeting Naru for breakfast at the arcade, playing a few games to get her mind off how much she missed her friends. Lunch with her mother and then shopping to help her pick out a birthday gift for her brother. One of her night classes. Tonight, it had gotten out early but Usagi, as distracted and out of it as she had been lately, left her cell phone back in the classroom.

Turning back to get it, and separating herself from the rest of her classmates, had been her mistake.

It was late. Other classes had already been let out and students, eager as always to escape the classroom and get on with their happy lives, had already disappeared from the campus area. But as soon as she stepped foot outside of the academic building, the moon princess started to get chills prickling along her arms and the back of her neck. The darkness didn't bother Usagi. It was the time when the moon shone brightest.

What bothered her was the fact that she heard footsteps behind her when only moments before there hadn't been anyone else around.

She was tired. Physically. Mentally. Emotionally. But even still, surely Sailor Moon could handle an everyday run-of-the-mill robber. Let them have her cell phone and the tiny bit of cash she had on her. It wasn't much. They probably needed it more than she did if they were stooping to such low measures. A simple robber didn't need a dose of moon power dealt to them.

Or so she had thought.

The blond was cooperatively handing over her wallet, apologizing even for not having much on her, when a nearby rustling startled her and the robber both.

An inexperienced robber, the hooded person panicked. Finger flinching on the trigger, they pulled without meaning to.

 _BANG!_

The shot rang out across the empty campus lawn before Usagi could even react, a soft "Oh!" escaping her lips as she staggered backwards.

"S-Sorry!" Apologizing, the robber dropped the bunny-patterned wallet and ran.

Leaving a wounded moon princess bleeding on the concrete.

Her fingers probed at her side, trying to find just where the panicked shot had landed. Somewhere around her stomach? She couldn't really tell. Wherever it was, there was a lot of blood. A lot.

Give her a demon or monster any day and Sailor Moon would fly into action without batting an eye. But a gun? It was something her powers weren't used to handling.

Head spinning, Usagi carefully lowered herself to the ground. Lower to the ground meant a shorter distance to fall when she fainted and she knew by the spinning in her head that was coming soon.

 _"Pressure. Put pressure on it!"_ Ami's cool and collected voice seemed to speak in her mind, making her clamp her fingers tighter to her side.

 _"Call for help!"_ Minako's panicked voice screeched inside her head, making the moon princess dazedly look around to see where her phone had fallen.

 _"Do something!"_ Rei pleaded.

But they weren't there. No one was.

Tens of thousands of miles away, in a small rural Italian villa, a glass of wine slipped from the grasp of a short-haired blonde woman. "Usagi."

They weren't there with her, but instantly each one of them knew their princess was in danger. And none of them were in any position to help her. Scattered across the world, no one of them alone could transport to their princess in need.

"Sorry…," Usagi slurred, shifting to lay herself down on the cool grass. So tired. She was so tired. Did people always bleed this fast, she wondered dully as the grass brushed her cheek. She couldn't recall getting so weak so fast as Sailor Moon when she'd been injured. Was that a special kind of gun?

" _If you forget the way to go  
And lose where you came from  
If no one is standing beside you  
Be still and know I am"_

Her communicator was beeping away on her wrist, but she couldn't spare a hand to answer it. Both hands were pressed tightly to her side. Pressure, just like Ami had said.

Of all the ways for Sailor Moon to meet her end. Sailor Moon, princess Serenity, who had stared down the toughest of enemies and always come out okay, was now being defeated by a simple human-made machine.

But she was alone.

That was the difference.

The ringing in her ears faded to just a muffled hum. Somewhere in the far distance she could hear a siren. Were they coming for her? Had someone heard the shot?

Rolling over, Usagi lay on her back and stared up at the sky. Brilliantly clear with stars as far as the eye could see and a thin, sliver of a crescent moon hanging modestly in the corner.

"At least," she thought almost lazily, "if I have to die, this will be the last thing I see."

Each breath was labored as she willed her body to find the strength to pull air into her lungs. Just a little longer. Help was coming. It had to be coming.

But not fast enough.

Darkness was falling over her eyes as her strength slipped away, pooling red beneath her in the grass at her back.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, to the friends who wouldn't hear her.

Her blue eyes were focused on one last shining star, until something pierced through the darkness.

"ODANGO!"

Soft light washed over her as warm hands found hers. "Odango." The voice whispered softly this time, constricted with grief as the hands pressed harshly into her side. "Odango, no." The voice, normally so strong and assured, crumbled into wavering whispers.

"Sei…ya?"

That voice. Those hands.

Slowly that light pierced through the thick veil that had shrouded her vision, until it cleared just enough for her to latch on to the pair of shining eyes staring back at her pleadingly.

"I'm here, Odango. I'm here."

" _If you forget the way to go  
And lose where you came from  
If no one is standing beside you  
Be still and know I am"_


End file.
